


senses

by princess_astra



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, all my OCs are poc because i am PROJECTING!!!!!!, really wild but i'm trying my absolute hardest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 22:03:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11217156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princess_astra/pseuds/princess_astra
Summary: jasmine contreras, amal nazari, and evelyn diaz have been a part of the avengers their whole lives.the only problem is: no one ever told them.until now.





	1. angst in my pants, the sparks

**Author's Note:**

> every chapter will be named after a song, and sometimes there will be clues in them as this story goes on! i hope you all are having as much fun reading as i am writing :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as someone with synesthesia i feel i need to point this out-- what the girls have is technically not synesthesia. it's something else you will find about about very soon

  
  
  
Jasmine Contreras thought she was going to die right then and there.

She was cold, hungry, and starting to shake. Her throat felt dry, and she knew that if she tried to get a word out to the person causing her this pain in the first place, it probably wouldn't work. Her body was frozen. She couldn't move if she tried, all her joints stiff, yet her mind was racing at a million miles per hour. She was pretty sure she had never been in this kind of panic over something like this in her entire life, and she needed to get the hell over it, fast.

Really, it was just her luck that she would end up in this situation.

"Do you know this answer?" The boy in question finally asked, after what seemed like an eternity of silence.

 _Maybe I do, you stupid_ _jerk_ _— but if I did, I wouldn't freaking tell you, the same way you didn't freaking tell me that you were making out and doing whatever the hell else it was that you were doing with Mara Robinson while we were on our SIXTH MONTH OF DATING, MONOGAMOUSLY, WHICH YOU APPARENTLY DON'T KNOW THE DEFINITON OF, THE SAME WAY YOU DON'T KNOW THE DEFINITION OF DIRGE RIGHT NOW. HOW DID YOU EVEN GET INTO ADVANCED ENGLISH IN THE FIRST PLACE?_

That is what Jasmine _wanted_ to say. "A lament for the dead," was what she said instead, her voice only slightly softer than usual, and still eyes unmoving, not daring to look Christian Fresno in the eye.

She seriously didn't know how she planned on surviving having to be partners with her ugly, cheating ex-boyfriend for the whole semester. She gave in when he responded, and looked at him.

"Thanks," a corner of Christian Fresno's mouth twitched up, in some sort of weird, hesitant smile. She hated the fact that he didn't actually spontaneously become ugly over the course of the last month when they stopped talking. Unfortunately, he still had shimmering blonde hair, enchanting green eyes, and stupid, soft pink lips.

Jasmine took a deep breath, and willed herself to stop looking at him by slamming her head on the table, crossing her arms so no one would see her face.

Unfortunately, the fact that Jasmine may or may not have given herself a very minor concussion and was shutting her eyes so tight she couldn't see anything, was _still not enough_ to distract her from Christian's existence.

One reason Christian and Jasmine first got along so well was because they both loved music. Jasmine instantly recognized the beat playing way too loudly out of his headphones as Angst In My Pants by the Sparks, the song from the album also titled Angst In My Pants, which came out March 29, 1982 and was their 11th album.

The reason why Jasmine was able to instantly conjure this near-encyclopedic knowledge, was because she had synesthesia. Her senses were crossed—she associated music with colors and letters. A G note sounded purple to her even when people tried convincing her otherwise, the same way bananas were yellow to people even if someone were to tell them they were actually blue-- or god forbid-- colorless.

This is a condition Jasmine Contreras has lived with all her life, and it has allowed her some advantage—such as being able to skip a grade, and knowing a lot about music.

However, on that fateful first day of school, Jasmine Contreras developed a new advantage—or maybe even a disadvantage, thanks to her synesthesia.

While Angst in My Pants, the Sparks, March 29th, 1982 rattled off in her brain like a bullet she couldn't stop from firing, another piece of information struck her, also.

_The Reinhold Mack Reactor, coordinates 40.7484° N, 73.9857° W, launch code 29..._

The information was not able to finish processing itself through Jasmine's brain, because she fainted as soon as the next verse started.

 


	2. concert for harp & strings in c - iii. allegro, francois boieldieu

Amal Nazari was many things. The things she defined herself as were normally along the lines of-- intelligent, multilingual, a government translator, an American-Indian, a woman, a listener of people, a listener of music, and a listener of her own heart.

She would often describe herself as a listener.

However, most people just described her as blind.

This was not much of a hindrance to her as she has lived this way since she was 9 years old and has grown accustomed to it by now. It was actually useful in her job in a way-- she translated language between important people: presidents, generals, CEOs, diplomats. Her disability was somehow reassuring to them.

"Thank you for your work here today, Ms. Nazari," a gentleman lightly rested his hand on her right shoulder. She didn't need him to do that, however. She was very aware of her surroundings.

"It's no problem, Mr. Odelin." She smiled.

The man laughed. "You've already connected my name to my voice? Amazing. It's a shame you don't know how beautiful you are."

Amal cringed inwardly. She has heard this line a million times before and not once has it actually been appealing. After all, she does know how she looks: big black curls, dark golden skin, closed eyes. "I do know how beautiful I am." Her voice was light and calming, like a princess voice, that made people not want to be angry with her even if she was making very pointed statements.

The man laughed again-- this time a deep, bellowing laugh, that she just felt came from a beer-gut. "Oh, do you darling? And how is that?"

"Words. Mine for subjective beauty-- everyone else's for objective beauty." It was the truth.

Her own words (and actions as a consequence) gave her a sense of self-worth. She chose them carefully. The things other people said to her helped her gauge how they felt about her easily.

The man paused for a moment. Amal could tell he didn't understand her well, and didn't want to seem stupid. It had already been too late for that, but he didn't know this, and continued anyway. "See, usually girls as pretty as you don't have to be smart. They never have to learn to be smart growing up because people give them what they want. That's why the pretty ones are usually stupid."

Amal smiled as she gathered her leather purse and headed for the door. "Then you must be the prettiest girl in the world."

She opened the glass door with her back, walking swiftly away from that godforsaken room, enjoying the powerful sound of her 3-inch heels clacking against the marble floor until she put her earphones in.

She played a song that she had heard live at the symphony three nights before. Recorded versions always sounded different, but nonetheless were still good.

Amal assumed that the difference between the live and recorded sound is why three nights before, she had simply enjoyed herself, mind rid of every thought, allowing the notes to fill her in a way she wouldn't trade for the world. (Her answer to numerous coworkers and classmates who had asked her the same insensitive question all her life was, in fact, that she would rather be blind than deaf). 

Today, however, she was struck with an idea. Or perhaps a fact. Either way, she was struck.

Information shot through her brain.

_The Reinhold Mack Reactor, coordinates 40.7484° N, 73.9857° W, launch code 29..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, this character is blind, in honor of my grandma who was blind who recently passed away <3
> 
> i hope you can sense the way she speaks and thinks would be a match for our god of mischief. let me know what you think about this song, i love it so much, and it really does fit her personality. the same way angst in my pants truly fits jasmine.


	3. renegade, styx

Jasmine blinked her eyes open, and sighed at the fact the that the ceiling was familiar to her. She was just forced to talk to her cheating ex, revealed creepy information, and fainted-- was that _seriously_ not enough to get her out of school?

Jasmine was lying in the nurses office, sitting only slightly upright in the chair. She looked to the side to see none other than Peter Parker, one of her best friends, aimlessly scrolling through his phone sitting in a chair by her. How he managed to get out of class, she didn't know. "Hey, spider nerd, what are you doing here?"

Peter's head shot up immediately, big brown puppy eyes wide, melting chocolate of worry. Usually he got irritated when she called him anything spider-related, as if someone was going to hear that and assume he was Spiderman. But he hardly even registered what she said, too focused on the fact that she had _said_ _something_. "You're awake! Are you okay?" Peter sprung to stand next to Jasmine, pressing the back of his hand to her forehead. "Does anything hurt? Did you eat enough today? You know, I think the school breakfast was actually--"

"Peter, I'm fine," Jasmine grabbed Peter's wrist, moving his hand away from her forehead. "I know exactly why I passed out. But it's kind of weird."

Jasmine sat more upright, and Peter sat on her chair by her legs. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it all started when I had to be partnered with Christian, since I am of course, the luckiest person in the world, and the universe loves me," Jasmine was trying her best not to spiral into another bitter rant.

"Yikes," Peter grimaced.

"Yeah. And he said like five words to me, and then started listening to music. Angst In My Pants, by the Sparks."

"A very _you_ song."

"I know, right? Anyway, as soon as the song started playing, this weird thing happened-- like this information just fired off in my brain that made no sense that I've never heard before..." Jasmine went silent for a moment, making sure no one else was in the room, having a gut feeling that something big was about to unravel.

Peter titled his head down at her, eyebrows lifted. "What is it?"

"Have you ever heard of something called the Reinhold Mack Reactor?"

Jasmine's gut feelings were usually right.

Peter sprung up again, and immediately began pacing-- a nervous habit Jasmine knew all too well. "You-- how do you-- where did--?"

Now it was Jasmine's turn to stand up. "I'm telling you, weird information fired off in my brain. So I heard this information and it told me where it was."

Peter turned quickly, and put his hands on Jasmine's shoulders, shaking her. " _You_ know where it is?!"

"Yes! They're some coordinates! God, stop man-handling me," Jasmine picked his hands off of her.

Peter immediately snatched his hands far away from her as if he just realized she was on fire. "Right, sorry." He gave her a look that was half admiration (a look which made Jasmine worry) and half game-face (a look that also made Jasmine worry). He spoke in a low voice. "We have to tell Mr. Stark."

" _What_? Are you kidding? You can go do that, I don't want to seem like I'm freeloading off of my--" Jasmine lowered her voice, "superhero friend."

"Okay, I'm not just your superhero friend. I'm your superhero _best_ friend. And if he's going to know this, he needs it directly from the source." Jasmine looked away, and crossed her arms. Peter turned her back to face him, gently moving her by the arms yet again, "I'll go with you. I won't leave your side. Seriously."

Jasmine didn't tell him to stop touching her this time.

Sometimes she liked it. Sometimes she didn't. That's pretty much how it always went, and she was always scared of that. Then he became spiderman, and scared turned into terrified.

But they were still best friends.

Jasmine sighed. "Okay..."

** 2 MONTHS EARLIER **

Amal Nazari didn't know if she believed what she had heard that fateful day three nights after the orchestra. She didn't want to cause panic, but she didn't want to assume it meant nothing, either. So she located the location of the coordinates, and went there herself-- one earphone in playing that same Francois Boieldieu, repeatedly feeding her information.

The location of the coordinates turned out to be at a big, fancy building that was one of the epicenters of business in New York City. It was extremely high maintenance, and extremely high class. This is why Amal was not completely thrown off by the British voice that approached her.

"Why do you have one earphone in?" He asked her.

"Why are you following me?" Amal fired back, as she touched the walls and clacked her way through winding, elaborate hallways.

"I asked first," he quipped.

Amal figured she didn't have anything to lose. Most people didn't believe or care for whatever a blind Indian woman had to say in this political climate anyway. "To continuously receive information. You?"

"Also to continuously receive information. For example, why are you headed this restricted way? What is your name?"

Amal did not falter at his questions. She knew from the sound of his voice that he held himself in high regard, but did not particularly care that she was breaking and entering. "I think there's a bomb somewhere near here, but I'm not sure, so I have to check. No one will believe me otherwise-- my name is Amal Nazari."

The man chuckled at her response, and how she kept moving forward no matter what. "I'm Loki."

"Any relation to the trickster jötunn?" Amal knew norse mythology. Jötunn was the word for God.

"Yes. I am him." The man said this with a conviction that sounded like he was telling the truth. Amal thought that she was good at perceiving truth in the voice, and was confused.

She shrugged. Crazier things have been revealed to her, but she did not really believe him. "Okay."

"So, tell me about this bomb." He followed her inquisitively. He was not worried about it, but seemed like he believed her.

"Reinhold Mack Reactor."

"How do you know about that? Where do you work?" He asked quickly, like he was trying not to sound desperate.

"You know about it?" Amal paused and turned to him. Loki was shocked at her precision-- she faced him directly.

"Yes." He responded simply. Loki learned that telling the truth tended to cause more trouble than lying. He was currently enjoying it.

"I know about it because I was listening to a song, and then the information just struck me. As if I had known it all my life, but it had been locked away. I work for Trusted Translations in Manhattan." She continued walking.

A certain note hit in the song, and she rattled off new information. "The bomb targets the many. Few will be saved. The Gods will tremble."

This caught Loki's attention even more. Him and his brother were currently in search of a particular God, and could use all the help they could get. "Which Gods?"

"The powerful." Amal echoed this as if she didn't really hear what he said. Loki sighed, figuring she was just crazy, until she continued. "The realms. Nine... But which one?"

"The realms? Now you know about the realms?"

Amal must have taken a wrong turn, she was lost now. "I-- I don't know--"

"Excuse me ma'am, but what are you doing here?" A different, authoritative male voice asked.

"I'm lost," Amal echoed meekly. She knew exactly how to play to her advantages.

"No you're not. We've been looking on the cameras."

The British voice was missing. "But how did you not see--?"

"It's alright. She's with me." The British voice returned. Loki.

Amal realized that he did not have loud footsteps-- or any footsteps at all when he was following her, and now she was extremely confused. She pondered the idea that he might have literally been Loki, but then wiped it away. Sometimes humor went straight over her head.

She simply stood still and did not say a word, waiting for the confusion to go away. It was a habit she developed as a child.

"Oh. Very well, sir." The authoritative security voice left.

Amal waited until the security's (audible) footsteps were completely gone before asking, "You don't work here. Why did he believe you?"

"How do you know I don't work here?" Loki asked.

"I can hear it." Amal stated simply. "You are very strange. But... you have a kind voice."

** 2 MONTHS LATER **

"Peter!" Jasmine jumped, her height barely allowing her to see the top of his head in the hallway in the distance.

Since Peter and Jasmine were who they were (nerds), they waited until the school day was over to do anything. This gave Jasmine time.

Peter came into view, and Jasmine ran, nearly crashing into him. He held her by the waist, mostly to prevent her literally knocking him over. But also because he had fast reflexes. And also because he enjoyed holding her. "What?"

"I figured it out! Well like, part of it," Jasmine turned her phone screen to him, smiling widely.

"Orange: A Playlist," Peter read out loud. He did not understand her excitement, but it made him smile anyway. "Okay...?"

"Okay, so, you know how I have synesthesia, right? Sounds have colors?" Jasmine moved to stand next to him as they began walking down the hallway.

"Yes."

"Well, Angst In My Pants by The Sparks was orange to me. So I figured, what if I get all my orange songs together, will I get more information? Specifically, will I get more information on Tony that will help? So I put together a playlist of orange songs, and then I chose one that was totally an Iron Man song."

"Which is?"

Jasmine gave Peter her earphones and he put them in. She played Renegade by Styx for him.

He nodded his head to the beat, trying to seem calculated and as though he totally understood what she was talking about-- but he did not have synesthesia. "HOW IS THIS AN IRON MAN SON--"

Jasmine's eyes widened quickly as she slapped a hand over his mouth. "Peter, you're shouting!"

He took out the earphones and realized people were staring at them. "Sorry." He gave them back to her. "How is this an Iron Man song?"

"The electric guitar? The snare beat? The, ' _I'm a wanted man_.'" Jasmine sang this as though it made perfect sense.

"Okay. It's weird that you call him Iron Man." Peter opened the door for her, and they were released from the 7th circle of hell (school).

Jasmine turned to face him, walking backwards. "It's weird that you call him Mr. Stark."

"Touché."

** 2 MONTHS EARLIER **

"Yes, Amal Nazari has been on our watch for awhile. Since she was born, actually." Director Nick Fury echoed, one arm propped under his chin, propped by another arm across his chest. 

"You have never spoken of her." Thor bellowed.

"Yes. We didn't know when she would be activated, or if when she would, if she would get the correct information." Fury continued, tilting his head at a holographic screen before him, leaning on the conference table.

"Activated?" Loki asked.

"She's one of three of an inhuman species with a sense power, disguised as synesthesia. They actually have the ability to store large amounts of information along with decryptions just by hearing a melody and knowing a color. We gave them each information we could not decrypt ourselves."

"Why couldn't you decrypt the information?" Bruce Banner, the last person in the room, asked.

"It's like a captcha. A human needs to do it, who can recognize the melody, the emotion-- not just an algorithmic robot." Fury still wasn't facing them. They were all sitting at the table.

"I thought the Reinhold Mack Reactor was a dormant threat." Loki added.

"It was. There are 6 components to the reactor, and 6 codes. When we first discovered it they only had one. Now they have four."

** TWO MONTHS LATER **

Jasmine rambled a lot when she was nervous, and said nearly everything she had learned.

"How did you know that? That's classified information," Tony Stark spoke calmly, keeping an eye on Jasmine while taking a sip of his smoothie nonchalantly.

Jasmine felt like she wasn't actually breathing up until he said that sentence. She was afraid of his reaction-- but now that he didn't seem angry, she was fine with explaining. "I have synesthesia. It associates sound with color. But I guess now I'm also associating information with color, because it just came to my mind when I heard these songs."

Tony swallowed the smoothie that was in his mouth, and turned deadpan to Peter-- "And this is your girlfriend?"

"No--!" Both Peter and Jasmine replied at the same time, each sounding frantic.

Tony raised his eyebrows. "Right," He turned around and began walking away, and Peter and Jasmine shared a look, not knowing what to do until Tony echoed-- "Follow me!"

** TWO MONTHS EARLIER **

"What do you need them for? Why now?" Loki asked, not comprehending how or why he felt defensive.

"To crack the codes to get to the bomb. Only _their_ minds can store and process that motion and relate it to the empathy of melody to do it."

"What are they?"

** TWO MONTHS LATER **

Director Nick Fury intimidated Peter.

He did not intimidate Jasmine, but probably just because he reminded her of her Tío Oscar.

"Jasmine Contreras, we've been keeping an eye on you. You're two out of three." Director Fury told her, as Tony, Peter, and Jasmine sat near him at a conference table.

"Two out of three what?"

**\---**

"Sense Sisters."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one goes out to both of my tios who are named oscar but mainly the one who lets me live with him. lol.
> 
> no, they are not literal sisters. they are related in a way. more on that later.


	4. best to you, blood orange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i feel my bones crack in your arms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay i'm sticking to this method of scene breaks with the lowercase roman numerals lol sorry

**i.**

"Five."

"No."

"Four."

"Also no."

"Three."

"Really, you're just going lower?"

"Two?"

"How could you think so little of me? The answer is seven." Amal sipped her coffee.

"You speak seven languages?"

"Yes. Now can you please answer my question?" She asked, for about the 8th time that day. They kept distracting each other.

"I have dark black hair, shoulder-length." Loki responded.

"Thank you. That's all I needed to know." Amal stood up, gathering her belongings.

"That's all? You don't want to know how I found you? You don't want to know why I bothered?" He asked.

"You found me by following me, you bothered because you were intrigued. And yes, that is all." Amal walked away swiftly, done with her lunch.

She didn't know what to do with the idea that so far, Loki had still not lied to her. Not even about the easy things such as appearance that many people tended to lie about to her. Everything he had said to her that she had asked had been the truth. Her friends told her what he looked like, and his voice sounded the same when he told the truth.

His voice sounded the same when he said he was Loki.

Amal hated that she was prone to curiosity.

Once she found something strange, she couldn't leave it alone.

Loki thought the same.

**ii.**

**ONE MONTH LATER**

"Ned. Hey, Ned!" Jasmine called in the hallway.

Ned, Peter's other best friend, turned to her and gave her a slap-in-the-hand-followed-by-a-fist-bump-thing that boys often did. "What's up, Jas?"

"Where's Peter? Have you seen him?" She asked.

Ned gave a knowing smirk. "He's helping Ms. Beltran with some computer stuff right now."

"Oh, okay, thanks," Jasmine waved, walking away.

Moments later, Peter found Ned. Before he could get a word out, Ned began rambling. "Hey man, your girlfriend was looking for you."

Peter rolled his eyes. "She's not my girlfriend, Ned."

"Ahh, but you know who I'm talking about!" Ned slapped his arm playfully, grinning.

"I don't know, man... I just don't think it's gonna happen." Peter sighed, taking out his phone and texting Jasmine that there was no word on anything from Tony.

**iii.**

Amal was the only one left sitting in the conference room. She was about to get up and break for lunch, when someone touched her shoulder.

Amal gasped, but Loki reassured her before she could panic. "It's Loki. No need to fret."

Amal stood abruptly. "Loki? What are you doing here?"

"It's not like I haven't been here before." It was true. Some days Loki would visit her at work to ask her to lunch afterwards, where they would snap back and forth with questions. Other days he knew she was busy, and brought her lunch with a sticky note attached-- something he wanted to tell her.

He always had something he wanted to tell her.

"Yes. But what do you want?" Amal asked.

Loki asked her the question she had been asking herself for the past two months. "Do you believe me?"

Amal froze before responding. "What do you mean?"

"Your pause insinuates that you already know."

Amal thought she didn't have anything to lose by answering truthfully.

She believed Loki was exactly who he said he was. "Yes."

"Good, then this will be much easier. You've heard of the Scarlett Witch, yes?" He stepped closer to her, grabbing both of her hands. He was trying to keep her calm with what was about to happen.

It wasn't working.

"What are you doing?" Amal asked, breathing rapidly.

"I'm sorry, but your life is going to be very different after this." A different voice approached, who Amal figured was the Scarlett Witch.

"I knew that the moment I met him." Amal's heart was beating fast, and she could feel it. Something was coming.

While Loki was still holding Amal's hands, Wanda put her middle fingers on Amal's temples.

"This is different."

**iv.**

As far as Jasmine could remember, whenever the intercom went off at school calling for someone to go the office, a little voice in her head always went-- _please be me please be me please get me out of here_ \-- but it almost never happened.

Almost.

"Can you please send Jasmine to the front office? She's leaving for the day," The lady's voice echoed throughout the classroom.

"Sure," Her teacher replied.

Jasmine shrugged, getting her things and leaving before her teacher could assign her any homework.

"Peter?" Jasmine questioned when she saw him standing in the office. She saw someone else with him, and her eyes widened. "And uhh...."

"Tony. Stark. Congrats, you're going to a meeting," he pat her on the back sarcastically. Before Jasmine even had time to attempt to explain anything to the star-struck office workers, Tony was already leading both of them out. "It's really not as fun as you might think."

"I'm missing health class. It's very fun," Jasmine reassured him. "But what's this for?"

"The Inhumans found another component to the reactor, and everyone at SHIELD is getting antsy. We've already got one sense sister come to us-- that's you-- so why not just get the other two? It's not like we don't know where they are." Tony explained as they headed out the door, and towards what was probably the most expensive car Jasmine has ever laid eyes on.

**v.**

_"We can't afford to waste anymore time. We need to extract Amal and Evelyn, bring Jasmine back, and begin the operation. Today." Fury decided._

_The Avengers stood around the room still, feeling tension in the air._

_Tony, the only one unfazed, snatched his car keys from the table and stood up. "Well, I'll get Peter and Jasmine from school."_

_Fury clasped his hands in front of him at the conference table. "Good. We'll have the agent already covering for Evelyn go ahead and extract her, that's easy. Amal, due to her disability, might be different, however. Wanda should probably give her a vision to prove this to her. Remember, we need to try our best not to take any of them by force. We need them_ _on our side_ _. We shouldn't risk anything unless absolutely necessary."_

_"I can help with Amal. She trusts me." Loki added._

_"You? What did you do to her?" Steve Rogers asked, immediately assuming the worst._

_"I had proper conversation." Loki glared. "I'll go with Wanda."_

_Fury sighed. "I truly do think this is our best chance. Our only chance."_

When Amal came back to reality from the alleged vision from the past the Scarlett Witch had given her, she immediately noticed her proximity to Loki was much closer than before.

She was panting heavily.

She had friends in her life, but now that she finally found a new best friend, he turned out to be a murderer.

"It's alright. You're still here." Loki still held her sturdily by the wrists despite her shaking.

A murderer was holding her.

She turned to where she knew Wanda Maximoff was standing.

"You're right," Amal breathed. "It does feel different."

**vi.**

"Let me speak to the manager!"

Evelyn Diaz was smiling for three reasons upon hearing that sentence.

Number one: she just won a bet against Mark. She totally knew this lady was a let-me-speak-to-the-manager type.

Number two: this lady was also definitely not from New York City, much less the Bronx (southern accent and all) and she was about to get a real taste of it.

Number three: she was about to say one of her favorite things in the English language (and also the Spanish language, when translated).

Evelyn Diaz was smiling. "I _am_ the manager. As a matter of fact, I'm the owner."

The lady grunted and left the coffee shop. She said some choice words during the process, but Evelyn Diaz was too busy basking in her mundane glory to care.

She was living the dream: the owner of a small, quirky coffee shop in the Bronx called Valentina (named after her late mother) which was famous for not only its kick-ass coffee and cool hardwood interior, but its interactive slam-poetry nights, comedy nights, songwriter nights, and many other nights which were always an event.

Yeah, Evelyn Diaz worked hard, but mainly minded her own business. She walked back over to her computer in the back room, working on a spreadsheet while mindlessly pulling at strands of her tight, kinky curls.

"Hey Evie, my turn to put on a playlist?" Amara, a girl with short blue-hair, one of Evie's many employees, asked.

Evie barely looked up for even a second. "Yeah, sure."

Amara was not Amara's real name. Amara was also not simply putting on a playlist-- she was completing a mission.

Amara played the beginning of Best To You by Blood Orange (one of Evie's favorite modern artists) and only had to wait a few seconds before Evie stood up from her computer, and burst into tears.

Amara wasn't sure what she was expecting by forcefully activating the first sense sister, but it definitely wasn't that.

**vii.**

Peter and Jasmine sat next to each other at the giant conference table in the Avengers tower. Many famous and secret-but-still-scary-looking Avengers sat all around them, and Jasmine was extremely nervous.

Peter noticed this, and slowly inched his hand over to hers from under the table. She let him take it, and he realized she was shaking. He gently traced circles on her hand with his thumb.

Jasmine shot him a grateful look and a very weak smile.

Across from them sat Amal, who stood up straight and regally, eyes closed, trying her best to control her breathing. She knew that she should probably be thinking about her newfound powers, the consequences and responsibilities within them, the fact that she was in the Avengers tower, or the fact that she apparently _was_ an Avenger-- but all that rang through her mind was: _Loki is a murderer. I thought he was my best friend. A murderer._

She was too busy being sad and curious to be angry or panicked.

Next to Amal sat Wanda Maximoff, but next to Wanda Maximoff sat Evelyn, more commonly known as Evie Diaz. Somehow, she was still crying. Evie herself did not understand why the hell she was still crying, and she was annoyed about it. They were silent tears now, but they wouldn't stop. She assumed the information revealed to her so suddenly and intensely somehow triggered an emotional reaction or something...

Actually, she didn't really know, and she was too busy trying not to cry to ask anyone.

"Hey, are you alright?" Evie felt a hand on her shoulder and turned in her chair to notice that it was none other than Steve Rogers.

Evie paused for a second, trying to adjust to the fact that this was actually happening to her, before snapping out of it and saying, "Don't touch me."

Steve immediately stepped back. "I apologize. I know it can be overwhelming, the sudden change."

Evie raised her eyebrows, and then turned around facing forward again in her chair, plopping back. "And who are you?" She asked the really young-looking kid in front of her.

"Um, I'm Spiderman," he responded.

Evie did not really care that it wasn't her table-- she put her elbows on it and put her face in her hands.

This was going to take some serious getting used to.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to make it clear, evie is half-black half-puerto rican, inspired by a real life cool person that i know, wink wink. if you have questions on the characters or what they look like, i can answer them for you here, however they will eventually be answered as the story moves along, i hope.
> 
> i've had this planned forever but i feel like this chapter was underwhelming? let me know your thoughts.


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